


The Horror at Silent Lake

by TehFallenOne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:02:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehFallenOne/pseuds/TehFallenOne
Summary: A paranormal  team go to investigate an old asylum





	The Horror at Silent Lake

**Author's Note:**

> This is an short story I had to write for my collage class

The Horror at Silent Lake

 

The day started as usual for Sophie Remmington at the real estate office where she sat day by day leafing through available area’s of land for a large hotel chain that was planning to open in the area. Sophie was drowsily looking through the open plots when she came across a perfect spot along a lake. She immediately picked up her phone and called the number listed on the bottom of the card. The phone rang three times and a raspy voice answered. The only information Sophie got was that the plot of land has been cursed by spirits. She set out to find a group of paranormal investigators that came highly recommended. As Sophie entered the dank office she saw five people sitting around a small round wooden table.   
“I am Sophie Remmington.” She said looking around the small office in disgust.  
“Nice to meet you Sophie Remmington.” A voice said from across the room.  
“I am Preston Hays, and I lead this group.” The same voice said coming closer out of the shadows.  
Preston moved around the room introducing his team, Hendrix Larsen, Victoria Black, Paige Marsh, and Lacy Matson. Sophie told Preston that his team was needed to leave right away to go to the plot and investigate. 

The team reached the barred iron gates that sat on the outskirts of the long overgrown plot. They cleared the vines to reveal the words Silent Lake Asylum. Preston opened the gate with a creek,and the rest of the group cut their way to an ominous building that had fallen into years of disrepair. The doors had fallen off their hinges and the floors were rotted and sinking into the ground. Preston and his team made their way through the broken down building. Preston walked to the center of the foyer and stopped short of a large hole that had developed in the center of the floor. Hendrix was setting up his equipment when he looked across the gaping expanse of the hole only to see a faded apparition. He stopped to see if he could get a better look at the apparition, but before he could it was gone. 

Hendrix blinked a few times and went back to setting up their equipment. Paige and Lacy were setting up a room for them to rest. While they were setting up the small room a woman's voice say, “Be careful.”   
“Did you hear that, Paige?” Lacy asked looking around the room.  
Paige looked around the room to see where the voice came from as she answered Lacy, “Yeah, I heard that we should go and let Preston know we have Activity already.” Quickly the ladies left the small room in search of their team leader. Lacy and Paige found Preston and Victoria looking intently at a MEL meter that was going off of its scale.   
“Before you say it Paige, I know.” Preston said looking up momentarily from the MEL meter.  
“These readings are not possible!” Victoria interjected with shock in her voice.  
Preston gathered his team in the foyer, and he gave them their equipment for the on foot investigation. Preston broke the crew into two teams. One team consisted of Paige, Lacy, and Victoria, the second team was Preston and Hendrix. Team One stayed on the lower levels that held mostly offices. While Team Two went to the upper levels were rooms of the inmates could be found. Lacy the team leader for team one had a Ovilus II out along with a recorder. Victoria had her MEL meter out as she followed behind Lacy. Paige followed behind the other ladies with a video camera and a full spectrum light. The first room they went into was dusty and full of filing cabinets. A broken desk was along the wall. Papers seemed to be scattered all over the desk and floor.   
“This room looks like it was an office at one time.” Victoria said in a whispered tone. Lacy and Paige nodded their heads.   
“You stay here and look over these files, Victoria. Paige and I will go and see what we can find in the other rooms,” Lacy spoke as she and Paige left the room leaving Victoria in the office like room. 

Paige and Lacy walked down the dreary hallway looking into rooms, every once and awhile taking pictures and doing EVP sessions in each room. Back down the hall Victoria sat alone in the office looking over papers. Most looked to be records of patients that were in this asylum. Meanwhile in the upper level Team Two were in the middle of an EVP session when Hendrix felt a cold chill run down his spine.   
“Preston, do you feel that?”, Hendrix asked, his voice hushed and low.  
“I do, and it seems this spirit is making itself known to you. Try and talk to it.” Preston spoke watching his friend closely. Hendrix held out his recorder and video camera.   
“My name is Hendrix, can you speak into this red light and tell us your name?” Hendrix asked steeling himself and steadying his nerves.  
Preston was impressed that his friend was doing so well even though something felt off about this place. The air just seemed to be heavy with death and decay, but yet no one else could feel it, must have been due to his gift, being a medium had its pros and cons. 

Hendrix’s hairs on his arm where standing up as goosebumps appeared as well. When a female’s voice seemed to come from behind him, “Pandora”. Quickly both Hendrix and Preston turned there heads to where the voice came from, and what they saw was startling. 

There stood a woman that looked like she was in her late twenties. Long flowing black hair that seemed to move in a spectral wind. She stood there in a white gown with what looked to be smears of blood interspersed in patches breaking the pure white, intense hazel eyes bored into the two men like concentrated beams of light.   
“Is Pandora your name?” Preston asked shaking off his surprise.  
The figure nodded her head in agreement as she raised a finger to her lips as if she was telling them to be quiet.  
“He is watching and waiting.” Pandora said apprehensively.  
“Were you the apparition I saw while setting up?” Hendrix asked stunned that he was actually seeing this ghostly figure his own eyes.   
The woman nodded her head again.   
“Who is watching a waiting, Pandora?” Preston asked confused.  
Pandora seemed to hear something that they could not. A look of pure terror seemed to cross her face.   
“Doctor is in. Leave quickly or you will never see light of day again.” Pandora responded with an air of desperation and absolute terror in her voice.   
After these words left Pandora’s lips she faded into the darkness of the room.

Victoria was still scanning the stacks upon stacks of patient records when she noticed something that seemed out of place, she noticed that every single record she looked at was signed by the same person, Dr. Thayer Atherton. Victoria screamed for Paige and Lacy, as they entered they saw Victoria frantically scanning through what appeared to be hundreds of documents.  
“What’s wrong?!” Paige and Lacy asked in unison.  
“I found all these documents signed by one Dr. Thayer Atherton.” Victoria said showing the documents to the other women.  
“He’s coming!” A voice whispered.  
Lacy instinctively turned around and snapped a picture with the full spectrum light camera. As the image came up on the digital screen was a semi formed apparition. Paige quickly pulled out her SB-7 Spirit box.  
“Who are you?” Paige shouted over the static from the device.  
All three women waited for what seemed like an eternity, but no voices came through the white noise of the speaker. Paige and Lacy left the room and resumed their investigation, leaving Victoria alone again with the papers.

Hendrix and Preston continued to make their way around the first floor stopping at doorways and using their digital recorders, but no voices came through. Hendrix who was operating a Structured Light Sensor, or SLS camera, stopped suddenly at the entrance to a surgical suite.   
“Preston you might want to see this!” He said pointing excitedly at the SLS camera’s monitor.  
“What is it?” Preston asked moving behind Hendrix to look at the monitor.  
Preston and Hendrix saw something mapped in as stick figure form on the monitor that appeared to be working on an invisible patient. Preston held out his digital recorder and hoped for the best.   
Lacey and Paige made their way through many offices on the second floor when Lacy stopped short of one doorway. Lacy stood just on the outside of the doorway as if she was paralyzed.  
“What is it Lacy?” Paige asked as she shook Lacy breaking her momentary paralyzation.  
“Well… I thought...it was nothing,” Lacy said shaking off the effects of her paralyzed state. 

After reviewing the digital recorder and finding nothing Preston and Hendrix pressed on until they came to the sun room. As they looked out over the lake Preston stood completely still as if he was lost in thought. Finally he spoke.  
“Tell me you saw that,” Preston said shocked at what he had just seen.  
“No I didn’t,” Hendrix responded.   
“What was it?” Hendrix continued.  
“I saw several people wandering around down by the lake,” Preston continued still dismayed at the vision he had just seen.  
“At this time of night, come on Preston be realistic,” Hendrix said slightly chuckling.  
Preston lead Hendrix away from the windows and back to the surgical suite. 

Paige and Lacy finally finished their search of the second floor offices and returned to the office where they had left Victoria. The pair entered only to find Victoria deeply engrossed in a file. Victoria looked up as they entered.   
“Good reading?” Lacy asked jokingly  
“Indeed it is,” Victoria retorted matter of factly.  
“Well care to share?” Paige asked sitting on the dusty floor.  
“Actually, it’s a file from a patient named Pandora,” she said   
“And it’s signed by Dr. Thayer Atherton,” Victoria continued.  
“Well what happened?” Lacy asked intently.  
“It’s unclear because the details of her demise are few… it says she died under questionable circumstances,” Victoria continued as she leafed through the file looking for details.

Hendrix and Preston had made it back to the surgical suite where they saw the figures via the SLS camera and entered. In the room they heard several disembodied screams and some inaudible muttering. They looked around frantically trying to determine the source of the sounds., when they heard a loud, low growl. Preston told Hendrix to stay in the room to make contact while he headed off to find the trio of ladies. As Preston, Lacey, Paige, and Victoria returned to the surgical suite where Preston had left Hendrix they found the room empty. All four of them heard a booming voice say, “One down four to go and the clock is ticking…” 

The four ran out of the room only to find that the interior had remarkably repaired itself and it looked as it did in the days when the hospital was in operation. The lights were all on and bright, there was hospital staff scurrying about their duties, patients moving about the hallways, and a doctor standing at the reception desk orchestrating this organized chaos. The four approached the desk as the doctor looked directly at them.  
“New Patients or just visiting?” The doctor asked.  
“Visiting?, New Patient?” Preston asked confused.  
“Yes,” The doctor responded.  
“Actually, We seem to be a little lost,” Paige said naively.  
“No my dear, you are right where you need to be,” the doctor answered.  
“Where did you get that?” The doctor continued as he pointed at Victoria.  
“What do you mean?” Victoria asked looking at her hands which still had the file in it.  
“That file!” The doctor said angrily.  
“Oh… That,” Victoria said hiding the file behind her back.  
“Yes that.” The doctor continued a little calmer.  
“Um…” Victoria said as she stared blankly at the doctor.  
“W..w..w..we found it on the floor,” Lacy said moving into the doctor’s glare.  
“May I have it back please?” The doctor asked with a twisted smile.  
“Sure…. Only I don’t even know your name,” Victoria said indignantly.  
“Oh why certainly my dear… I am Dr. Thayer Atherton,” The doctor said plainly.

As Victoria held out the file an arm came through in a blur and grabbed the file from her hand. As Victoria looked at what the arm was attached to and it was a woman in her late twenties with black hair and a white gown.   
“Pandora?” Victoria whispered  
Pandora stared blankly at Victoria and continued on her way with her hair and gown flowing behind her.   
“You know that patient?” Dr. Atherton asked.  
“Sort of,” the whole team answered.  
“What do you mean sort of?” Dr. Atherton asked.  
“It’s hard to explain,” Preston said.   
“I have all the time in the world,” Dr. Atherton responded “And until you tell me so do you,” Dr. Atherton continued as he motioned to two orderlies to grab the team.

As the team struggled against the orderlies’ grip each one in turn is stuck with some sort of paralytic agent and freeze in place. The orderlies forced the entire team onto gurneys and wheeled them to seperate rooms. Lacy was the first to fall asleep followed by Victoria, Paige, and lastly Preston. Paige was the first to awaken from her paralyzed state and wander the hallways. Paige noticed that there were several rooms that looked recently vacated and strangely enough the prior residents belongings looked like they have been there for a while. As Paige was looking at the belongings she heard a gurney coming down the hall. Paige hid in a corner so that she could see the door but not be seen by anyone outside the room. As the gurney passed she saw that Victoria was laying on it. Paige followed the staff pushing the gurney at a safe distance until they came to a lone surgical suite. The staff pushed Victoria’s gurney into the suite and left. Paige took the opportunity to look at the markings on the door which read EST Electro Shock Therapy. Paige decided that it would be best if she got Victoria out of the room.  
“I am getting you out of this place!” Paige said as she hurried to undo Victoria’s restraints.  
“There is no way,” Victoria said weakly.   
“There has to be,” Paige said with tears in her eyes.   
“Paige you have to let me go,” Victoria said licking her dry, chapped lips.  
“I can’t V,” Paige said trying to hold back tears.   
“You must Paige,” Victoria said as she struggled to maintain consciousness.  
“Be strong for Pres and the others, for me please, can you do that?” Victoria asked just before she stopped breathing.   
“I can,” Paige said steeling her resolve.   
“V…. I don’t know if you can hear me but thanks for being there for me,” Paige said letting her emotions get the better of her.

Paige left her friend’s corpse in that horrid room and made her way further down the hallway where she found Pandora. Pandora was crouched in a corner of another room like the one she had just left. She made her way carefully to Pandora as not to startle her. Pandora looked up at Paige with tears in her eyes.  
“I saw him,” Pandora’s voice cracked as she said that.  
“Saw who?” Paige asked looking into Pandora’s eyes.   
“Dr. Atherton,” Pandora replied with tears streaming down her face.  
“And what was he doing?” Paige questioned as she stroked Pandora’s hair.  
“He had his organs outside his body,” Pandora said rocking back and forth slightly.  
“Who was this?” Paige asked in a soothing tone.  
“Your friend, the guy you came here with,” Pandora said burying her head in her knees.  
“Preston!” Paige exclaimed looking at Pandora with sadness in her eyes.  
“Pandora, can you do me a favor?” Paige continued,   
Pandora only nodded.   
“Good,” Paige continued “I need you to hide as best you can for me and don’t move...ok,” Paige said as she stood up and looked around for Dr. Atherton.

Paige headed off in search of Preston and found Lacy laying on her table with the file tucked under her body. Paige took the file and went to reach for Lacy but right before her hand made contact with her body, Paige found herself back in the abandoned hospital with the file which now read Pandora across the front of it. Paige race from the room she was in hoping to find Preston, Lacy or Victoria. 

Paige scoured the decaying hospital for her friends, secretly hoping that this had all been a horrible dream, but she could not find them anywhere. Paige found an office and sat in an office and opened Pandora’s file. The first page was nothing but vital statistics and the like. Paige flipped to the second page which is where the real story began. The page had the Silent Lake Asylum header, then just a list of doctors the one that stuck out to Paige was Dr. Thayer Atherton. After the list of doctors there was a small space then a section entitled details. The details section went on for a few pages and read in part:

July 23, 1919

“Pandora came to us a troubled girl but we will soon remedy that. Her demeanour   
towards my staff is leaving a lot to be desires, her disrespect for authority is a glaring   
character fault. She needs to be taught obedience and I have just the thing to teach her.  
This treatment is extremely experimental and highly dangerous, and I am going to start   
Pandora’s course tomorrow. This treatment is called EST or ElectroShock Therapy.”

August 8, 1919

“Pandora has not responded to her treatment, I will have to resort to more drastic  
means.”

August 30, 1919

“Orderlies found Pandora in her bed this morning being her same unruly self  
At around ten in the morning she had disappeared from her bed, shortly after that she   
appeared at the surgical suite.”

August 31, 1919

“Pandora died this morning by unknown reasons.”

As Paige read further she found that the reason listed was heart failure due to a massive electric current passing through it. She also discovered that the attending physician was Dr. Thayer Atherton.

 

Paige heard the same male voice she had heard before saying   
“Paige your time is short...Tick-Tock.” 

Paige felt herself drift off for a second and when she awoke the hospital had become new again. Immediately she sprang from the floor and went to the room where she left Pandora. Pandora was still there only now her head had two burns, one on each side of it, and her face was devoid of color, and her dress had blood spots on it. Paige leaned in close to Pandora and examined her face. Paige looked into her eyes and spoke,“Pandora what happened to you?”   
“I saw things I wasn’t supposed to see,” Pandora replied rubbing her temples.  
“Like what?” Paige asked lifting Pandora’s head with her hand.  
“What he does to the others,” Pandora replied slightly crying  
“And who is he and what does he do?” Paige replied looking lovingly into Pandora’s eyes.  
“The Doctor and he kills people by removing their internal organs and EST,” Pandora replied as she looked away as if to hide something.  
“I saw your friend...the woman you came with go into that room and never…” Pandora was cut off by Paige’s interjection.  
“Never, what Pandora you must tell me!” Paige said frantically.  
“I am so, so, sorry,” Pandora said sobbing into her hands.  
“She’s dead..” Pandora continued.  
“That’s why you tried to warn us isn’t it?” Paige asked fighting back tears.  
“Yes it is,” Pandora said looking around the room ashamed.  
“Come on we’re leaving,” Paige said grabbing Pandora’s arm.

Pandora followed Paige to a recently vacated room where Page laid on floor and urged Pandora to follow. Pandora lied down next to her and they both drifted off to sleep for a second, and when they awoke they found themselves once again in the decaying hospital. Paige woke up first and picked Pandora’s limp sleeping body up off the floor. As Paige headed for the door she glanced back at the dismal interior and shouted.  
“You have taken your last soul you monster!” 

There was a loud cracking sound that reverberated in the decrepit building causing Paige to run as fast as she could toward the door and to freedom. Paige crossed the threshold of the door and out into the field where she stopped for a rest. Pandora feeling the fresh air on her face woke and looked at Paige. Paige pointed at the building and said “Watch.” Both Paige and Pandora watched as the building fell into ruin. 

“That’s my story Miss Remington,” Paige said.  
“And one more thing I am taking my daughter, Pandora, away from you, this city, and all of this,” With that Paige hung up the phone.  
“Pandora my sweet girl you heard it all,” Paige said as she turned to her new daughter with a smile on her lips, but her eyes tolled another story.  
“I did and thank you,” Pandora said with hope and a new found love in her voice. Pandora was thankful that she had been saved from that place of torment.  
“We will start over in a new place and hopefully forget this whole nasty business behind us,” Paige said knowing that all the loss and pain would behind them soon.  
“I hope so, but I have to go I will be late for class,” Pandora said as she turned to leave for college. She had a new life and a new mother that was looking out for her.  
“Alright talk to you later then Pandora, and I love you,” Paige said as she got down to business to find a new place to live that way her daughter could still go to her classes.  
“I love you to mom...see you tonight,” Pandora said as she walked out the door heading for the collage.

I watched as my new daughter headed out the door and off to school with the promise of a bright future ahead of her. “This will give us a new start on things”, I whispered to no one, while looking over new places to live with my daughter, “We will leave this whole paranormal thing in the dark, and live life to its fullest.”


End file.
